Magnolia Mamas

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

DIY Yarn Wreath Tutorial {Baby Shower Wreath}

On Monday I shared all about Jen's baby shower. If you missed it, you can read all about it and see pics HERE. I always like to do a little something for showers that the mama can take home with her. When I had Boo-Boo a friend of mine made a wreath for me to take home and I loved hanging on my front door when he was born! For Jen's shower she had two goodies to take home (besides all of her amazing gifts). My sister-in-law made a super cute banner with her baby's name and I made a yarn wreath. The wreath was not only for Jen to take home and hang on her door when the baby is born, but it also served as decor for the shower.

Some of you might remember I attempted yarn wreaths for Easter last year and I loved how easy they were to make.

To make a yarn wreath you will need a foam wreath, one thing of yarn (random FYI - it's actually called a skein of yarn) and any decorations you might want to go on your wreath. I used a wooden letter that represents her baby's first initial and some snowflakes I found in the scrapbook section to match the winter shower theme.

Start by tying the yarn to secure one end.

Then start wrapping the yarn around the wreath form.

I found it easier to wrap the yarn loosely for a bit...

Then push the yarn tight section by section to cover the wreath.

Continue wrapping until you have covered the entire wreath. Then tie of the end with loose end where you first started.

Now you'll be ready to add decorations to your wreath. I first added the wooden letter, but I was stumped as to how I would keep it on the wreath. I was worried the wooden letter was too heavy to hot glue to the wreath so I ended up tying it on. I was going to use fishing line, but couldn't find any around the house so I improvised with dental floss. Yes, you read that correctly. It worked great though! Then I hot glued the snowflakes on and put some over the letter where it was tied on to cover up the dental floss. :-)

I hung the wreath using snowflake ribbon and it was the perfect added touch!

Have you made a yarn wreath before? I'm on a roll and trying to think about what holiday or event I could make them for next!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Children's Book Club: Snowmen at Night

Nothing makes you think about January more than snow! Now here in the deep south we don't get to see those pretty flakes too often, but we aren't going to let that stop us. This month's children's book club theme is all about snow, and some sneaky snowmen...

JANUARY'S SELECTION

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner.

FROM THE BACK COVER:
Have you ever built a snowman and discovered the next day that his grin has gotten a little crooked, or his tree-branch arms have moved? And you've wondered . . . what do snowmen do at night? This delightful wintertime tale reveals all! Caralyn Buehner's witty, imaginative verse offers many amusing details about the secret life of snowmen and where they go at night, while Mark Buehner's roly-poly snowmen are bursting with personality and charm. From the highly successful team that created such winning titles as Fanny's Dream, Snowmen at Night is fabulous, frosty, and fun!

Other books in the Series: Snowmen at Play, Snowmen at Christmas, Snowmen at Work, & Snowmen All Year

ACTIVITY: Make Snow Paint
This is a super easy and fun activity to reinforce the book, as well as great to pull out on those rainy/snowy days of winter when you need a fun activity inside. We decided to make our own version of Snowmen at Night out of our snow paint.

Supplies:
- Shaving cream
- White school glue
- Iridescent glitter or silver glitter
- Construction paper (we used black for night).

Instructions:
1: Place shaving cream and glue in the refrigerator for a few hours.
2: Mix equal parts shaving cream, glue, and glitter in large bowl.

3: Once mixed it will be slightly fluffy.
4: Pass out paint brushes and begin painting.

5: Let the children create their version of a snowman. We had craft eyes and beads on hand and let them add those as they finished painting. Let dry for approximately one hour and then the snow paint will be set. Note: It will kind of "puff up" as it dries.

Happy Reading!

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Monday, January 18, 2016

Jen's Winter Baby Shower

I just love baby showers and I was so excited to get to throw a little winter baby shower for Jen yesterday. She originally didn't want a shower or anything, but I talked her into doing something small and just celebrating with a few close friends.

I used pink, silver, burlap and lots of glittery things for the shower and it felt so girly and like a pretty winter wonderland.

I made a yarn wreath with her baby's initial on it and more glittery snowflakes. I'll share directions of how I made it on Wednesday!

For food we had traditional southern shower food. Croissants and chicken salad, cheese straws, fruit, vegetables and petit fours (also known as cake squares) from our favorite bakery.

Jen is the best friend I could ever ask for and I was so happy to get to help her celebrate the upcoming arrival of her baby girl!

She had friends from her neighborhood..

And also this group of girlfriends (but missing our sweet friend L)...

And even these sweet little girls were in attendance. We let the bigger girls stay for the shower because we knew they would enjoy it and they were a big help handing Jen gifts and played the perfect hostesses as guests were leaving. They made sure everyone got their favors and thanked them for coming.

Jen got some really cute things for her baby girl. Some adorable clothes, some baby essentials and diapers!

For favors I did my favorite thing for a girl's shower...nail polish! I picked out an assortment of colors that matched with shower and tied them up with ribbon and little "It's a Girl" charms I found at Michael's.

It was the perfect girly favor and hopefully all of her friends will have fun painting their nails and that it will serve as a reminder of Jen and her sweet baby.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Friday Favorites/Random Ramblings

Yay for Friday! It's been a few weeks since we popped in to do one of these with our favorite bloggers, but as always so fun to think of what's been our favorite lately.

ONE

This was more of last week, but we have been reaping the benefits this week. Little Cute got her cast off and we could not be more excited!! We celebrated "cast off" day with a mini little manicure. She is such a girlie girl sometimes and I love it!

It's been so nice to say goodbye to that cast, and here's hoping we don't have a repeat performance any time soon!

TWO

Love, love, loved Carrie Beth's post earlier this week on all things leopard. We both didn't realize how much we wore it, especially during the winter until we were talking about it one day. I don't know what it is, but sometimes even as a die hard southern girl I just have to channel my inner Jersey and break out my favorite animal prints. One of my favorite new things are these fun leopard flats.

I purchased them on a whim (normally this brand is not my style), but they are surprisingly comfortable and perfect for a lot of these rainy days we have been having. I found them true to size and they can be purchased here or even here (a few sizes were on sale).

I love putting L.C. in it too! She and CB can match in their fun leggings!

Just so much fun to break up all that drab black and winter white with a fun print.

And I was excited to find this fun leopard printed baby carrier! How cute is that?!? Now just to figure out which color Miss 3.0 will like!

And she might need this cute leopard bow to coordinate. ;)

THREE

This week has been all about the baby prep. We've done a ton of work on the nursery and it feels good to finally feel a little prepared. We still have a few major things to knock off our list, and this week I tried to nail down paint colors. Who knew there were so many shades of gray?!?

I am not sure how I am going to choose, but I need to soon! A lot of you gave great suggestions on Instagram, so I might pull a few more swatches and then my goal is to have this crossed off my list by this afternoon!

I also took some time this week to prepare myself. I texted CB this pic after I left the salon.

I went five inches shorter and a few shades lighter. Ah...it feels so good! Mommy can at least have good hair when the baby paparazzi show up at the hospital, right?

FOUR
L.C. received this cute Disney Princess pop-up book for Christmas, and it is adorable! I love seeing how much fun she has going through each of the pages, and how excited she gets to see her favorites.

Baymax and Mickey still have her ultimate heart, but Ariel comes in a close third.

It has a ton of little things for her to do on each page and some of the pop ups are huge! It has quickly become one of her favorite things.

FIVE
You couldn't turn on the news, open a social media account, or walk out your front door without hearing the word "Powerball" this week. We usually do not play, but bought into the hype and had a blast with friends dreaming about what you could possibly do with almost a billion dollars.

It was so fun hearing everyone's ideas, and what they would splurge on or what they would donate too. Did you play? What would you have done first?

For the record, Cute and I determined we would buy an island. With a water slide. :)

What were some of your favorites this week?

Happy weekend!

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Roomba Review

Happy Thursday, friends! I hope everyone is having a great week. I don't know why, but this week seems to be dragging for me and I keep thinking it is a day ahead in the week only to realized it isn't. Don't you hate with that happens?!?! I'm happy tomorrow is Friday though and excited about a 3-day weekend!

Today I wanted to share about my very favorite Christmas present I received. If you remember back in December I included a Roomba on my Women's gift guide post and I was really hoping that I would receive one.

I have been wanting on for probably about 8 years now. When we had our first golden retriever right after we got married we learned all about the dog hair and the shedding of golden's, but it didn't really bother me that much.

We were newly married with no kids and she was like our kid so we put up with it. Plus, I was able to clean when I needed to and vacuuming or sweeping up the dog hair wasn't a big deal.

Well a few years after that we had a baby and then that baby started crawling around on the floor and while she became obsessed with our sweet Sydney, I because obsessive about cleaning the dog hair.

I had a few friends that had Roombas and I really started pressing for one, but because of the cost I never got one.

When we got our current dog, Walker, we knew he would become an important member of our family. That is why we got another golden because we just knew how sweet and loyal they were. He is constantly at our sides and we love that about him.

But last year I quickly remembered all about the dog hair and how much I couldn't stand it on the floor. I had no problem sweeping on a daily basis and vacuuming as much as possible, but that combined with the kids' messes and crumbs made me feel like I was going to go crazy. SO, I put the Roomba back on my wish-list and hinted every chance I got to the Mr. that it was REALLY what I wanted for Christmas.

Now the Mr. had mentioned to some of our neighbors that he had gotten this for me for Christmas back in December and they gave him so much grief for it. They couldn't believe he was giving me a vacuum for Christmas and thought for sure I would be upset. He knew I would love it though. (And for the record, a regular vacuum would not have been a fun present, but one that works by itself, well that qualifies as the best gift ever!)

I was so happy and surprised on Christmas morning when I opened it because we said we weren't exchanging big gifts. I set it up that afternoon and have been singing it's praises ever since! Just last week Little Mama made the comment, "Look how cool this is...you are fixing us lunch and cleaning up in the kitchen and the Roomba is just cleaning at the same time." She got it! That is exactly why I had wanted it. It isn't because I'm lazy and I can't vacuum by myself. It frees up so much of my time that I spent cleaning the crumbs and dog hair off the floor that I'm able to get other things done!

In case anyone is thinking about getting one I wanted to share my thoughts on how it has worked for us.

I have it on the first floor and run it everyday.
You can set it up to run automatically and a scheduled time, but I just turn it on when I'm home and know I can pick up kids toys and stuff so it can really clean well.
Speaking of kids toys, only once has it sucked something up, but I was able to empty the canister and get it out.
One other time it sucked up a ribbon that was left on the floor. It got tangled in the wheels, but it turned itself off and alerted me that something was wrong so I was quickly able to remove the ribbon and turn it back on.
Because of the dog hair the canister fills up so sometimes I will stop the Roomba, empty the canister, and then set it on it's way again.
Our dining room steps down and the first day we had it we were worried it would fall down that step as it was heading that direction, but y'all, this thing is so smart! It got right to the edge and turned itself around.
The sensors on it are amazing. It will go around legs of tables and furniture to get every possible place it can.
Our first floor is a combination of hardwoods, rugs and carpet and it transitions over each of those surfaces with no problem.
At first it looks like it is just moving around in a random matter and doing "X's" all of the floor, but somehow it gets it all.
It won't always finish one room before going to another area, but then will end up back in the room it was in. Because of our open floor plan it kind of goes all over the place, which is fine with me!
It comes with a sensor you can put up if you want to block off certain rooms or keep it from going into a certain area, but I want everything cleaned so I haven't used that.
When it is done cleaning it goes back to the docking/charging station.
It will not clean my entire first floor before it needs to be docked to recharge, but we have a lot of area for it to cover so I just turn it back on once it has charged, if needed.
Maintenance on it is easy. About once a week you have to clean the brushes, but it doesn't take long at all.

If you can't tell, I'm seriously in love with this thing. I want another one for upstairs, but for now I'll just have to keep vacuuming the 2nd floor myself.

We have the Roomba 655 Pet Series, but there are a range of available options. See them all HERE. I know these are pricy and that is why I had to wait so long to get one, but I'm just here to share that if you are thinking about it and wondering if it is really worth the money...trust me, IT IS!!!!

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